The event's logo

Many participants are looking forward to the event and to visit the city of Estelí. Leandro Gómez describes the location of the festival in his home country:

Estelí is a city in northern Nicaragua, near to the border of Honduras, 150 kms. from capital city Managua, and the official venue of the First Central American Free Software Summit.

The city of Estelí, known as the Diamond of the Segovias, will also host the first international meeting of Ubuntu community leaders in Central America, with the participation of members from the Ubuntu Local Community Teams in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Honduras, Panamá, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and special guests from other communities in Latin America.

From neighboring Honduras, Diego Turcios writes about the different communities that will be attending the event [es]:

De nuestro bello pais Honduras, asistiran 9 o 10 personas. De las cuales son representates de las comunindades linuxeras del pais.Las cuales son: GULTGU, Linux Maya, Comunidad GNU/Linux del Progreso y Ubuntu Honduras LocalTeam.

Events like these are usually heavily attended by males, but there will be a strong presence from female members of open-source software communities. Victoria Zeledón, one of the few members of “Centroamericanas” a network of female Central Americans working in the field of free software welcomes everyone to Estelí adding:

A pocos días de conocer a mucha gente ya estoy emocionada por la experiencia a vivir. Además las Mujeres Centroamercianas que trabajamos por el software libre haremos presencia al igual que muchas personalidades que harán que este encuentro sea de mucho provecho.

In addition, she recommends this link to learn more about Estelí and its nightlife.

ECSL09 has its own blog, and provides updates and logistical information for participating groups. Among the groups from across the region include Asociacion de Usuarios GNU/Linux El Salvador, Debian Costa Rica, Debian Nicaragua, Debian Panamá, DebianSV, and El Salvador Ubuntu Team, just to a name a few. A complete list can be found on the blog's sidebar.

Even though many of these communities have been part of the planning of or have known about the event for quite some time, there are some who believe that it is important to share information using social networking tools. Rodrigo Peñalba of Nicaragua writes that this promotion can help attract attention and media support for the event, despite some resistance because Twitter and other sites are not free software [es].

The excitement for this event is showing. MMGC84 of the GNU/Linux community of Nicaragua thanks the organizers for this opportunity and posts the image of the receipt for the registration payment saying, “I'm almost in Estelímar!”

Participants from El Salvador and the 22 member states are divided into one of a broad range of areas including: Astronomy, CampusBot (robotics), Innovation, Modding, Campus Create, Digital Leisure and Digital Inclusion, and includes the participation of bloggers. These bloggers have captured the feeling of being in a room with their fellow technology enthusiasts through their blog posts, photos and videos.

Photo by Patinet and used under a Creative Commons license.

David of the blog Dark Manfred [es] and a native of El Salvador writes about his first impressions about the amount of computers in the room, numbering in the hundreds.

With representatives from all 22 Ibero-american states, it is an opportunity to meet others, share ideas, and see what others are doing across the region. Blogchorno [es] from El Salvador had the opportunity to see the XO computers from the One Laptop Per Child project that attendees from Uruguay had brought to demonstrate. The traditional media is also presented, as La Prensa Grafica, one of San Salvador's most important newspaper is devoting a blog [es] to the event and published a note about theBlogs & Beers event for local and visiting bloggers. David Mejia is also promoting the event on Facebook [es].

Many bloggers are writing about their favorite areas of Campus Party Rafael Monge was thoroughly impressed with modding (modification) of computers from their original factory enclosures with “customized designs by their owners to make things truly surprising: personalized equipment which are more works of art.”

The robots have also been a notable attraction, with original designs built by representatives from across Ibero-América. Joster Ricardo took a video of a robot that stands up on its own.

As many of the participants are enthusiasts of Open and Free Software, many were excited about the recent release of the newest version of Ubuntu 8.10. To spread the word, there were signs everywhere, such on the computer towers and also on signs on people's backs to let everyone know for sharing purposes. Edwin of Sansivar Graphics [es] has photos.

However, not all bloggers arrived from around El Salvador, others travelled varying distances such as Gustavo Reyes of Guatemala [es], Hugo Miranda of Bolivia [es], Carolina Botero of Colombia [es], and Julio Juan Ortega of Nicaragua [es]. The gathering was also an opportunity for first-time visitors to El Salvador to try local cuisine. Joan Guerrero from the Dominican Republic [es] captured an outing to try the traditional pupusas.

The event continues through Saturday morning, and one can follow the rest of the agenda on Campus Party's official YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook page.